Walls not strong enough to fit blinds

Giggidy

bmthmark wrote: »

I've had these issues and they are a pain, but easily fixable.
What I did was removed the crumbling bits of plaster, be careful as you want to avoid removing it all (unless you want to get it re plastered). Then you can use polyfiller to fill the gap and then finally you can then screw in to it (after dried out)

Seems like this way is the common denominator. Fortunately the blinds guy drilled the holes where the blinds are to be fitted so we could crumble the plaster around those, polyfiller it and then possibly get a few of the universal plugs suggested above. I hope this will work, I was expecting a big expensive job right before Christmas

TheCyclingProgrammer

Giggidy wrote: »

Yep where he drilled, some bits crumbled away which he filled up again. So what is this solution for that?

Its sounds like it could be a lath and plaster wall - normally used for internal walls but can be used on external walls too. Our upstairs bedroom has an overhang above the downstairs bay window that is lath and plaster and we had difficulty hanging a new radiator. We ended up ripping out all of the lath and plaster, insulating and reboarding and when I did this I fixed some plywood between the studs where the radiator brackets were to be fixed.

However if your wall is lath and plaster you do not need such an overkill solution, especially for just a blind - you just need to find the studs and use these to fix a wooden batten, you can then fix the blinds to these using normal wood screws.

If its not lath and plaster and is just a regular plastered masonry wall then crumbling plaster shouldn't make any difference (except for possibly needing some decorative repair) as you don't fix things into the plaster, you fix things into the masonry behind it.

If he's drilled holes into the masonry and its crumbled so any wall plugs are just turning in the hole, then wet'n'fix patches are great for fixing that problem:

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Fischer-Wet-'n'-Fix-Pack-10/p/511151

Wet them, wrap them round a wall plug, push it in and wait 10 minutes for it to set.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Bear in mind we're all kind of guessing here - could you post a photo?

FreeBear

Ideally, you should (or rather the fitter) should be drilling through the plaster and in to something solid. You don't say how old the house is, which would give some indication of what is behind the plaster.

On old properties, there may be a brick arch over the window, a stone, concrete, or metal lintel, or even a timber beam.

Plaster has very little in the way of structural integrity and should not be used to support something heavy - If you really want to fix something heavy to plaster(board), use a grab adhesive to fix a piece of timber to the wall and then screw in to the timber.

A couple of tips when using wall plugs on plastered brick walls - Drill the hole one size smaller than recommended and tap the plug in so that it goes in beyond the plaster. You may well need to use longer screws. If you are fixing to plasterboard, then use the correct type of wall plug.

Giggidy

I tried posting pics earlier but when I tried to upload the link it just showed a tiny image box. Can someone please tell me how to upload pics on here please?

The house is about 70 years old

TheCyclingProgrammer

FreeBear - all good advice but if OP is having his blinds fitted by a so-called professional you'd hope they would know all of those things!

TheCyclingProgrammer

Giggidy wrote: »

I tried posting pics earlier but when I tried to upload the link it just showed a tiny image box. Can someone please tell me how to upload pics on here please?

The house is about 70 years old

If you upload to something like imgur you can post a link - if it won't let you post links break the link up and somebody else will re-post it.

Giggidy

http://imgur.com/a/bk2fN

Tried Imgur still not working

TheCyclingProgrammer

Giggidy wrote: »

http://imgur.com/a/bk2fN

Tried Imgur still not working

Links working fine. A close-up would have been better.

That seems like a very odd position be mounting blinds.

What is behind the hole? Is it hollow? If you stick a screw driver in there does it hit solid masonry? Does it feel like the masonry is directly behind the plaster or is there a gap?

FreeBear

Giggidy wrote: »

The house is about 70 years old

OK, so 1940-1950 era. In which case it will most likely be lime plaster. No fixings will hold in that stuff unless you drill in to the lintels - These may be wooden beams, in which case, no wall plugs will be required.

Oh, and expanding foam is not suitable for fixing blinds with - There is a reason it is called "bodging foam".